Tag: journalists

Kaiju (“strange beast”) is primarily a subgenre of the monster movie that became codified in Japan. They’re mostly gigantic monsters that are nigh-unstoppable by conventional armaments, and run around destroying cities or fighting other giant monsters. The seeds of the story type were sown in the original King Kong movie, but it was Gojira (“Godzilla”) that codified it, and inspired most of the later examples.

This is a collection of sixteen short stories and poems on the theme of kaiju, all appearing here for the first time. The book opens with “Call of the Vailathi” by John Ledger, a poem that cautions that even when the kaiju is on your side, it is still a destructive force. …At least it has a rhyme structure, that’s good. The closing tale is “Unleashed in the East” as fracking releases a monster from the Java Sea, and two airline pilots must make a decision between saving themselves and saving the world.

I really enjoyed “The Wolf and the Rabbit” by Alice J. Black, in which a disaffected pub worker connects with another random survivor, and finds the will to do what must be done in this crisis. If the monster seems too easily dispatched, there are hints it wasn’t the only one.

Also good is “Frankentop” by Amanda M. Lyons, which is told from the perspective of an artificial intelligence that both wants to be loved, and to protect itself. Unfortunately, the latter is easier than the former. Internet references abound.

“I Awoke…Wutoomba!” by Roy C. Booth homages the Marvel monster comics of the late Fifties and early Sixties. Jack Lieiber, writer of fantastic fiction, travels to a South Seas island and runs into an assortment of stock characters, including the title monster. This one is mostly going to please Marvel fanboys who get all the in-jokes.

Most anthologies have a dud or two, but seldom to the level of “The Plastic Centipede” by R.T. Sirk. The monster itself is a cool idea, a giant centipede made of discarded mannequin parts and the vengeful spirits of a gangster’s victims. But spellchecker typos, misplaced commas, badly structured sentences and characterization by telling, not showing make this story come off like the first draft of a fanfic, rather than a professionally published story. This is clearly a failure of editing, as these banes of small press publishing should have been caught early on.

“A Day at the Racetrack” by Essel Pratt is also sub-par, as waste in a stock car racetrack’s inner pond turns animals giant-sized. Regional stereotypes are played for broad humor, as are potty jokes.

The rest are decent enough stories. Due to the very uneven quality, I would recommend this book only to kaiju fanatics or fans of a particular author for that one story.

Book Review: A Weird and Wild Beauty: The Story of Yellowstone, the World’s First National Park by Erin Peabody

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway for the purpose of writing this review.

In early 1871, the readers of Scribner’s Magazine, one of the best-selling periodicals in the United States, were treated to an article about a mysterious land south of the Montana Territory. According to the article, there was a place of geysers that shot steaming water hundreds of feet into the air, where mud pools exploded on a regular basis, and trees were encased in stone. This was the first widely-published account of the Yellowstone, and many dismissed it as an absurd traveler’s tall tale.

But the Yellowstone River and its surroundings were very real. It had been named “Mi tse a-da-zi” (Rock Yellow River) by the Minnetaree tribe, and translated to “Roche Jaune” by French trappers before English speakers gave it the present name. Native Americans had often visited or lived there for its special properties, and stories of it were shared by the few hardy white people who’d managed to survive a visit. They were generally disbelieved by those who had not been there. It took a proper expedition organized by former banker Nathaniel Langford and staffed by sober, reliable citizens to show the reality.

This volume is a history of how Yellowstone became a National Park written for young adults by a former park ranger. The primary emphasis is on the two important expeditions, first Langford’s and then a full scientific expedition led by government geologist Ferdinand Hayden. In addition to the hardy scientists and support staff, the expedition had two artists and photographer William H. Jackson, and their visual evidence was key in convincing Congress of the reality of the fabled wilderness.

The writing is clear and concise, rated for twelve and up, but quite readable for adults. There are multiple sidebars about related subjects such as the Transcontinental Railroad and Henry David Thoreau, and many illustrations in both black & white and color.

The history section briefly covers what is known of the history of the Yellowstone area before the expeditions, and up to the point where the National Park bill was signed into law. More recent events concerning the park are not covered in the main text, although some are mentioned in the sidebar.

After the history section, there’s a map of America’s National Parks and other federal preserves, then a couple of chapters on the science of why Yellowstone is a unique area. There are endnotes, a bibliography, index and photo credits (in readable sized font!)

Part of Yellowstone’s importance is mentioned in the subtitle; it was not just the United States’ first National Park, but the world’s. Previously, when land was set aside to preserve it, it was only for the powerful (“the King’s forest”) or the very wealthy to enjoy. This was the first time a national government had set aside wilderness for the sake of the public at large. And just in time, as the Hayden expedition had already run into people planning to exploit the Yellowstone area for private commercial gain. (At this point in history, the U.S. side of Niagara Falls had already been completely privatized and commercialized!)

The book briefly touches on mistreatment of Native Americans, the extinction or near-extinction of animal species and other difficult topics, but these are not the main concern. The bibliography contains books that go into much more detail on these matters.

Most recommended for teens interested in history and the outdoors, but also good (and affordable) for adults with similar interests.

Book Review: Shot in the Face: A Savage Journey to the Heart of Transmetropolitan edited by Chad Nevett

Disclaimer: I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway for the purpose of writing this review.

Transmetropolitan was a science fiction comic book series co-created by writer Warren Ellis and artist Darick Robertson that ran under the Helix and Vertigo imprints for sixty issues from 1997-2002. It details the journey of “gonzo journalist” Spider Jerusalem as he is forced to return to the sprawling City and becomes involved in presidential politics. The foul-mouthed and personally noxious Jerusalem has one redeeming quality, an absolute dedication to tell the truth as he sees it, and in the bizarre world of the future, that quality is vital.

This book is a collection of essays on various aspects of Transmetropolitan, from its publishing history to how it compares to other works by Mr. Ellis. It’s been in my To Be Read pile for a long time, since its publication in 2013, as I had meant to actually read Transmetropolitan first. But the volumes I needed were checked out at the library, and weeks went by and then I lost track of this book. Having it surface again, I decided to read it without finishing the original series.

The essays, for the most part, seem pretty solid. There’s one that compares and contrasts Spider Jerusalem with Hunter S. Thompson, who was a major inspiration for the character, and another on whether Jerusalem counts as a “super-hero” as well as detailed looks at the plot structure and interviews with the creators. Some of the essays could have used another proofreader pass, as I spotted spellchecker typos and sentence fragments.

The essay “Supporting Players: Women in Transmetropolitan” by Greg Burgas seemed a little off as he does not even mention two minor characters who show Spider Jerusalem’s less stellar qualities, mentioned in a couple of the other essays, and seemingly this essay would have been the place to go into depth about them.

Several pages from the comics are reproduced in black and white to illustrate points, and there are a few stills from a documentary about Ellis.

As one might expect, there’s a lot of rough language in here, mostly in quotes from the series, and discussions of edgy topics–consider this to have the same “mature readers” designation as the comics.

Primarily recommended to fans of Transmetropolitan or of Warren Ellis in general. If you haven’t read the series yet, you will be better served by doing that first.

The 2016 presidential election campaign has already begun, so let’s take a look at a book about elections of the past, shall we? H.L. Mencken (1880-1948) was a newspaperman, most famously on the Baltimore, Maryland Sun. For a number of years, he had a weekly opinion column published on Mondays. These 69 essays are focused primarily on presidential politics between 1920 and 1936.

That covers Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and the first two elections of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Mr. Mencken skewers them all, as well as other politicians and public figures of the time. He was famous for his barbs, and is eminently quotable. For example “…going into politics is as fatal to a gentleman as going into a bordello is fatal to a virgin.”

It’s interesting to see what has changed about politics since the first half of the Twentieth Century, and what has remained the same. It’s still amusing to watch a party’s primary candidates tear each other to shreds, then have to work together as best buddies once the party has an official nominee. On the other hand, the Republican and Democratic parties of the time are barely recognizable as the organizations they are now. (One can see the beginnings of the policy flips that lost the Dems the KKK vote.)

Mr. Mencken has a wide vocabulary and many useful words that may come in handy for your own writing. But be warned that he also uses some ethnic slurs that were common at the time. His views are progressive on some subjects, but highly reactionary on others, and he’s not afraid to speak his mind. Mr. Mencken is particularly hard on Methodists and Baptists, who he feels bullied the country into Prohibition (which Mencken was against.)

H.L. Mencken did support some politicians on an individual basis, but was quick to edit his own memory of their performance when they disappointed him. One also has to remember that he had a reputation as a curmudgeon to uphold.

To cover the major players, Warren G. Harding was a compromise candidate chosen for not having particularly strong views on anything; Calvin Coolidge was even less impressive (unless one takes the Jeffersonian dictum that “the government is best that governs least” in which case he is one of the greatest presidents.) Herbert Hoover was sold to America as exactly the kind of person who could fix a financial crisis should one pop up–he wasn’t. And FDR would have been better suited to the job of king.

Interesting historical perspective: Mr. Mencken writes several times about the perception that Hoover was too close to the British, something that didn’t get any play in the little I heard about him in school.

This collection was put together in the 1950s with the aid of political history scholar Malcolm Moos; it already needed an extensive “glossary” of names mentioned in the columns to remind people of who they’d been. Even with the glossary and index, some knowledge of early 20th Century American politics is vital to the reader getting anything but a few chuckles out of the text. My copy is in bad shape, as you can see, but the book has been reprinted a few times, so check your library or used book store.

Recommended to students of American politics in the first half of the 20th Century.

Fifteen middle-schoolers are at summer camp when they discover a seaside cave and decide to investigate. Inside, they find a man called Kokopelli, who is surrounded by electronic gear. He claims to be developing a new game where you pilot a giant robot to defend the Earth against alien invaders. He asks the children to help him test it, and they agree to become mecha pilots (but one boy prevents his little sister from participating.)

That night, the children find themselves transported to the cockpit of a giant robot (which will become known as Zearth) and watch as Kokopelli demonstrates how it works and defeats an enemy robot. He then tells them it’s up to them now, and teleports them back to the beach, with a robot creature called Koyemshi as their guide.

Each of the children must now take their turn as pilot of Zearth, defending the blue planet of their birth. But they soon learn that Kokopelli concealed important information from them, and the “game” is far crueler than they could have imagined.

Despite the age of the protagonists, this manga was aimed at the seinen (young men) demographic, and is not at all kid-friendly. I’d rate it for senior high schoolers and up.

I’ll be discussing spoilers below, so for those who prefer to go into series with some secrets preserved, I will say that this is a well-presented story, with disturbing themes. The artist’s style works well with the awkward middle-school anatomy. There is also an animated series that softens the ending a teensy.

SPOILERS beyond this point!

In a neat narration trick, the narration of the first few chapters is by Takashi, the first pilot and typical shounen genre protagonist. It’s done in the past tense, making it sound as though Takashi is remembering it years later. And then, after Takashi’s battle, Jun accidentally knocks Takashi off the 500 meter tall Zearth’s shoulder, and the narration cuts off mid-sentence.

Shocking, but that was an accident, right? Until the second pilot just up and dies after their battle. Turns out Zearth works on life force, and each child will die from piloting the mecha. Oh, and the “alien invaders”? They’re actually from parallel Earths, no better or worse than “our” Earth. The losing robot’s universe is destroyed, and there’s an infinite number of “games” going on.

Meanwhile, the children (and a handful of adults who are let in on the secret) must live their own lives, and we learn about each pilot’s backstory and issues. Some of them have normalish kid issues, others are Afterschool Special-worthy, and one story is Law & Order: SVU territory and may be triggery.

The volume at hand is number 11, the final book in the series. We are down to our final pilot, Jun. He’s not exactly the person you would have picked as Earth’s last defense, having been a real jerk in the earlier volumes. But he’s learned that most of the assumptions he made to justify his horrid behavior were false, and seen the sacrifice that others made for him and the Earth. And Koyemshi is finally opening up a little now that all the secrets are out.

Jun prepares for battle, but the enemy’s plan will give him one more cruel set of choices to make. There is no escape from the cycle of death.